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NATO cautious on Russian shield offer

NATO has reacted cautiously to a Russian offer for the United States to use a Russian-controlled radar station in Azerbaijan for a missile defence shield, questioning whether its location was ideal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to US President George W Bush at a Group of Eight summit that Washington use the Azeri radar instead of planned missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

Moscow suspects the shield is aimed at Russia. Washington says it is to stop missiles from "rogue" states.

"I think it is a bit close to the rogue states we are discussing," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a conference about the proposed Russian alternative.

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"But it's a bit too early in the day for my final judgment. It is always useful when two presidents are constructively talking to each other on this," said Scheffer, who has promoted NATO as a forum for talks over the shield plan.

In Baku, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov told reporters Russia had approached his government with a proposal to use the Qabala radar jointly with the United States, for example in sharing information obtained by it.

"Azerbaijan is ready for such consultations," he said. Azerbaijan had held what he called "rudimentary consultations" with the United States about the radar.

The Qabala radar has operated in the north of Azerbaijan since 1985 and is manned by Russian military who lease it from the Azeris. One of the biggest radars in the world, it scans the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and most of North Africa - and can detect missiles launched in those areas.

Bush did not directly mention Putin's offer in comments to reporters. US officials have in the past stressed they regarded the proposed central European sites as ideally placed to intercept missiles coming from the Middle East.

White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Putin's idea was "a bold proposal". US officials would study the offer and discuss it with the Russians.

Putin said that if Washington took up the offer he would not follow through with a threat to redirect Russian missiles to targets in Europe.

The Kremlin said Putin's idea would remove any need for a US radar anywhere in eastern Europe.